Killer of Sheep is considered one of the seminal films by an African-American director, but in the years following its release, the movie “sat decaying in an L.A. film lab, the original print and magnetic soundtrack acquiring what film preservationists call vinegar syndrome, an irreversible deterioration accompanied by a telltale acetic acid odour… Could the fact that Killer of Sheep was made in South L.A., so close, yet philosophically so far from the Hollywood studio system, have contributed to the neglect?”